As the largest program of CEDAC, LDP implements and manages development projects on agricultural extension and livelihood development. The project are based in provinces where field staff work alongside farmers, village-based farmer association and farmer promoters to help alleviate poverty, ensure food security and build sustainable livelihoods adapted to changing climate conditions. Since its inception, CEDAC has implemented more than 165 community development projects with funding support from various donors.

Supported Farmer to Farmer

To date, more than 150,000 small-scale farmer families in 4,895 villages, 841 communes and 120 districts in 22 provinces have improved their socio-economic conditions as a result of cooperating with LDP projects. The core of these programs is training in ecological agriculture methods, including CEDAC-developed techniques such as System of Rice Intensification (SRI), Ecological Chicken Raising (ECR), Home Gardening (HG) and Multi-Purpose Farming (MPF), as well as more general activities such as manure collecting and solid composting.

Supported to Farmer Organization

CEDAC has been working extensively to support the development and management of genuine farmer organizations. They are briefly described below:

Village-based farmer’s associations (VFAs) and their networks: 1,249 village-based farmer’s associations in 1,237 target villages, 12 provinces comprise with 58,370 members (37,154 women) have united, with assistance from CEDAC, with 63% of members are women, reflecting CEDAC’s commitment to gender equality. The accumulated capital of all VFAs has reached 22,000 million riel or approximately 6 million USD. VFAs act as umbrella organizations and represent different farmers’ groups and village-based self-help groups, such as producer groups, savings groups, women’s groups, and poorest-farmer groups.

Farmer and Nature Net (FNN): FNN is the first national farmer network formed in 2003 with coordination and support provided by CEDAC and officially registered at the Ministry of Interior on March 10th, 2006, with the mission to promote “Equitable and Sustainable Improvement of Farmers’ Family Livelihood and Community Development.” By the end of 2012, there were 1,299 self-help saving groups as members of FNN in 662 villages, 203 communes, 50 districts of 14 provinces are under the umbrella of FNN. Total membership of FNN is 37,143 individuals, including 24,651 women. To date, total capital of FNN (1) in saving groups is US$11,095,164.00; (2) in SoSor is US$235,167.00; and (3) collective fund of SoSor is US$10,259.00. 32 rice cooperatives have also been formed under the FNN network.

Supported to Saving for Self-Reliance Group

Village-based Saving Groups: CEDAC has been supporting communities to form savings groups to promote self-reliance. By the end of 2012, there were 1,621 saving groups with total membership of 35,619 individuals, including 23,991 women, with total savings capital nearing 17 million US dollars.

Confederation of Saving Associations (CSAs or SoSor): SoSor focuses on assisting saving groups at the grassroots level to form as clusters to ensure that as many savings groups as possible are run sustainably on their own. Through this intervention, SoSor will become the farmer cooperative bank to promote savings, mutual help and strengthen solidarity among farmer communities. SoSor is supported by CEDAC, CEDAC staff, other stakeholders and outsider investments. The program currently contains 99 CSAs with 1,262 saving groups with of 31,671 members. The association has 576,000 USD in capital and total capital at the Sosor level is 120,000 USD.

Linking Small Farmer to Market

One of LDP’s objectives is to link farmer production to the market at prices that are acceptable to both farmers and consumers. Thus, producers are able to increase their income by selling vegetables, rather than using them only for home consumption. They can use this extra income to contribute to community development, enhance collaboration between producers and ensure local food security by both supplying the market and increasing production. CEDAC facilitates the formation of farmer producer groups with established regulations on membership and principles to govern discussion making within the groups. Income from sales is divided into: (1) income for members according to their contribution and (2) a local development fund dispersed according to the group’s regulations.

Ensuring Access to Primary School of Children

A key non-farming objective of LDP programs is to ensure that rural children from the poorest families receive basic education. The “Happy Mountain Bird” project, currently in its 4th phase (HMB4), funded by Mr. Yashihiro Fukushima, a private donor from Japan, has supported 28,140 poor families to send a total of 41,796 children to school on a regular basis in Kampong Chhnang, Takeo, Prey Veng and Kampong Speu provinces. Of these families, 6,770 were selected to receive trainings on improving livelihood through ecological agriculture techniques. To select beneficiaries and ensure proper cooperation, project staff conducted a child census, selected teachers leaders for each village, formed children’s groups, and monitored target children’s achievements, advised parents and played educational films in the target villages. To ensure sustainability of the project’s interventions, project staff and beneficiaries have worked with the Ministry and the Provincial Department of Education, Youth and Sport, as well as local authorities.

Through October 2014, the Happy Mountain Bird phase 5 (HMB5) will work with an additional 1,000 villages of 6 provinces. The project aims for 30,000 children between the ages of 6 to 11 to attend school more regularly.

Supported to Farmer Water Use Community (FWUC)

Farmer and Water Use Communities link villages together to extend irrigation resources. Through support of the Asian Development Bank, FWUCs ensure transparency and accountability in use of local water resources. The Irrigation Service Center (ISC) was established to form 12 FWUCs with approximately 15,000 families members.

Those FWUCs have been combined into one Farmer Water Use Network (FWUN) with members in 8 provinces, extending irrigation to around 23,000 ha of farming land.

Community based Climate Smart Agriculture and Natural Resources Management

Many of CEDAC’s projects focus on climate change and promote climate smart agriculture and natural resources conservation. Our CC adaptation and mitigation projects have five objectives:

- To stop the decline of natural resources - To push the movement of natural resources increasing - To support farmers to become more resilient to the impacts of climate change

To meet these aims, around 600,000 trees have been re-planted in the target areas, more than 60,000 families have increased manure collection and 49 trees nursery established in target villages, pagodas and schools.

The improved cook stove program is also a key part of our CC-focused programs, which use less fuel and require less wood. 1,625 cook stoves have been distributed to target farmers and other stakeholder institutes.

CEDAC Biodigester Program (CBP):

Since April 2007, CEDAC has been a cooperative partner in the National Biodigester Programme (NBP) which promotes domestic biodigesters to local farmers. The National Biodigester Programme (NBP) is a joint program between the Cambodia Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV).

Initially, CEDAC promoted biodigesters in five target provinces: Svay Rieng, Kampong Cham, Kandal, Kampong Speu and Takeo. As a result of those efforts, 320 biodigesters were built in the five provinces. In November 2007, the National Biodigester Programme (NBP) was extended to include two more target provinces, Kampot and Kampong Chhnang. CEDAC was selected to manage the program in Kampot province. In October 2008, the National Biodigester Programme (NBP) assigned CEDAC as the manager of two of the additional provinces, Prey Veng and Kandal.